How to Organize Your Desk Drawers in Your Home Office

Here are some tips for organizing your desk drawers in your home office:

1. Start by emptying out the drawers completely, so you can see what you have and what needs to be organized.
2. Sort through the items and discard anything in an appropriate way that is no longer needed or not in good condition.
3. Decide on a category or theme for each drawer. For example, one drawer could be for office supplies, another for documents, and another for personal items.
4. Use drawer dividers or organizers to keep items separated and in their own designated area.
5. Use small storage containers or tray to organize smaller items like paperclips, push pins, and other small items.
6. Use a desk pad or mat to protect the bottom of the drawer from scratches and to prevent items from sliding around.
7. Consider using expandable file folders, hanging files, or file boxes to organize important documents and papers.
8. Use drawer labels or labels on the organizer to know what's inside
9. Regularly go through your drawers, to keep them organized and eliminate any items that are no longer needed.
10. Store any confidential or sensitive documents in a locked cabinet or locked drawer.
11. Utilize the back of the drawer as storage space, if the drawer is deep enough, you can add risers or small shelf to increase storage capacity.

Remember that organizing and maintaining your office drawers is an ongoing process. Consistently taking the time to sort through and declutter your drawers will help keep them organized and easy to use.

Turn Your Junk Drawer Into Your Neat Drawer

We’re probably all guilty of having at least one junk drawer somewhere in our house. This is the drawer that started out as a helpful drawer that kept all the handy items in one place like tape, pens, buttons, safety pins, and so forth in one central location, but turned into the drawer where other things manage to accumulate when people don’t know where they go or don’t feel like taking the time to put them away properly. Get this drawer (or drawers) back into useful mode again by using a few simple steps to bring things back under control. 

First of all, in order to clean it out, you’ve got to empty it out. Remove everything. Place a piece of paper or tea towel down to protect your countertop or table surface. You may want to make sure all items are placed on this protected surface. Once the items are out of the drawer, they need to be sorted. 

Group all similar items together, and if you can’t determine what something is or if it’s needed after consulting with others in your family, you may decide to get rid of it. If there are things in this drawer that belong in another location, be sure they are put away promptly. You can clean the drawer completely and wipe dry. Afterwards, you may want to lay a fresh drawer liner or contact paper inside. 

The next trick is devising a simple, workable organized system that everyone in the family can use. Ice cube trays, small boxes or even 35-mm empty film containers work well to store small things in. If you cannot see into it to determine its contents, make sure it’s clearly labeled. 

Most importantly, encourage your family to keep the drawer organized and neat. If it’s properly maintained, there should be no need to shuffle through the drawer looking for things, creating an even bigger mess to clean out yet again in a few months.